Here's a strategy to help increase the visibility of your Facebook page throughout the holiday season. Actually, this works not only for the holiday season but all year long.
Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ each have the ability to connect a post to someone else, and get their attention doing it. Today we're going to explain how the Facebook feature works; it's called "tagging."
When creating a status update from your Facebook wall you can easily mention someone's name, or a business name, in the update box. By the way, did you know that the official name for the Facebook update box is called the "Publisher Box?"
To connect one of your status posts to someone or to another business you simply need to type the @ symbol followed by their name. Facebook will activate a drop down list as soon as you type the first letter of the name after the @. For example, if you type "@jeweler" in the Published Box you might see "Jeweler Website Advisory Group (jWAG)" in the drop down list. We say "might" because the Facebook experience is different for each user depending on who you normally interact with.
You can only tag someone if their name shows up in the drop down list, so keep typing the name manually until it appears. Click the name to activate the tagging feature. You will see the @ symbol and whatever you typed is replaced by the official page/person's full name. From there just keep typing the rest of your status update. You can also delete the middle or last name of the person. You cannot shorten their first name, though. If they are listed as "Stephen," you can't tag them and also call them Steve.
Many popular Facebook Business Pages will appear in the drop down list more easily than less popular pages. Pages with less than 100 or so Likes will probably not show up easily.
Since this is a Facebook Wall feature, it does not correctly work from applications like TweetDeck, MarketMeSuite, HootSuite, etc.. This is a manual process directly on Facebook. It will also not work from your phone updates.
Now here's the reason we want you to know about this feature... When you tag another Facebook Business Page, you create an update on your Wall *and* their Wall. This instantly allows you to tap into the people who Like that other page.
Let's give you some specific examples and steps so you can see where we are going with this...
Step 1:
Log into Facebook.
Step 2:
Use Facebook as your Business Page. To do this, click the down arrow in the top right corner. Click "Use Facebook as Page" then click the "Switch" button next to your jewelry store's page name.
Step 3:
Search Facebook for all the designers you carry in your store. Technically you do not need to do this step, but we've found that the chances of tagging are better when you Like a page you want to tag. Please note that you are using Facebook as your page, and we want you to like your designers as a "Page" rather than you personally.
Here are a few random pages you could Like:
http://www.facebook.com/KCDesignsNYC
http://www.facebook.com/A.Jaffe1892NY
http://www.facebook.com/ThistleandBee
http://www.facebook.com/pandorajewelry
http://www.facebook.com/hotdiamonds
http://www.facebook.com/DavidYurman
You should only like pages of the designers you carry in the store, or feature on your website. Search for your most popular designers on Facebook and Like each one of them. Make sure you Like the proper page; for example that you like Pandora Jewelry and not Pandora Radio.
IMPORTANT: Keep track of all the Pages with several thousand Likers. Those are the ones you can capitalize on.
Step 4:
Whenever the time is appropriate, you will tag these designers in a new status update following this example:
"We have the @pandora Holiday Collection now in store! You have to see the limited edition Gift Box charm in person at our Totowa, NJ location. The Gift Box charm really is adorable."
As you type out that example post above the "@pandora" will suggest tagging Pandora Watches/Jewelry. Note that you must manually type the @pandora; tagging will not activate if you copy/paste your post into the Publisher Box.
When you're done typing, click the blue Share button as usual.
So what's the benefit of this?
In this example we used Pandora, which at the time of this writing has more than 930,000 members their Facebook page! Your tagged status post will show up on your jewelry store Wall and on the Pandora Wall. There's an immediate potential for exposure to 930,000 people!
We suggest including your town name and state/province in hopes to attract attention of those local to you.
Specific suggestions for posts:
Don't try to sell.
Don't include prices.
Ask questions or give opinions.
Include your location.
Read the Wall of the business you are about to tag and don't post an update if it will be outside the current Wall conversation.
Like this Daily Golden Nugget? Leave us a comment on our own Facebook Wall at http://www.facebook.com/JewelerWebsiteAG
